Town Council - Regular Meeting

um to move resolutions, ordinance, policies, and proclamations up to number four after approval of minutes. Oops. And move everything else down one. And then uh for 15, add an executive session to discuss potential purchase to move resolutions, ordinance, policies, and proclamation. Okay. Whoa. Uh um add a executive session to discuss potential purchase of land and review of attorney correspondence. Is there a second to that? Second. Is there any discussion? If not, those in favor signify by saying I.

I n to adopt the amended agenda. Motion to adopt the amended agenda. Second. Second. Any discussion? If not, those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. The agenda's adopted as revised as amended.

Item three, approval of minutes. 3A, special meeting of March 10th, 20 26. D 3B, regular meeting of March 10th, 2026. and 3C special meeting to March 12th, 2026. Motion to approve them as was second.

Motion made and seconded. Any discussion, any errors, emissions or changes to the minutes as presented? Hearing none, those in favor of adopting the moving the minutes, please signify by saying I. I post nay. Adopted. Agenda item four, public remarks. No. Excuse me. Catch me off guard here. We're going to do a resolution or proclamation for retiring public works employee Henry TK.

Would you mind if I invited Henry up wherever you way in the back? We'll give Henry an hour to walk himself all the way back up here. That would be wonderful. Maybe you could stand in front of the podium.

Hi. How are you? Good. So far so good. All right. Get over and kind of face this here. You want to come here? You come. You come over here. All right. I'll go right here. How's that sound? Good. Good to me. We're good.

All right. So, the proclamation reads, "Whereas Henry TK began his career with the town of East Hampton on January 31st, 1994 with the Department of Public Works as the chief mechanic and will retire on March 31st, 2026. And whereas throughout his 32 years of service, Henry played a vital role role in maintaining and improving the town's vehicle fleet, often working with aging equipment and ensuring that essential vehicles remain safe, reliable, and operational for the benefit of the community. And whereas Henry demonstrated exceptional skill and ingenuity in his work, including converting two retired fire trucks into functional public works plow trucks, extending the life and usefulness of equipment through creativity and resourcefulness. And whereas Henry's talents in welding and fabrication allowed him to design and build custom solutions, saving the town both time and resources while ensuring that equipment met the needs of the department and the residents it serves. And now, therefore, we, the East Hampton Town Council, on behalf of the citizens of East Hampton, congratulate Henry Trick on his retirement, thank him for his many years of service to the town, and extend to him our best wishes for an enjoyable retirement with his family and friends. Thank you so much.

Thank you for what you're saying. We'll have you back to fix something. Bring the welding to you. Thank you very much. Congratulations. Moving on in the agenda, resolutions, ordinances, policies, and proclamations. We just finished. We're now going to public remarks. Um you

I I would like to go to the dis give your name and yes address and then you have three minutes. Got to go first.

Wow. All right. I've talked to the town manager about this but uh my name's Gregory J. Bayjack and uh oo I live at 27 Salmon Run and um this is about I'm 100% service connected Vietnam veteran and I'm here about the taxes that Governor Lamont gave us and what the town charges me and and I want to read the law, the latest law. It says Connecticut offers significant benefits for 100% disabled veterans. That's what I am. A full property tax exemption for their property, home, and up to two acres of land plus potential exemptions for one vehicle. All right. Now, I brought it to the town manager. I brought it here. And I don't know, I'm going to just say roughly I pay like I'm going to guess like 8 grand a year and you guys charge me two grand a year. And uh I'm connected really deep with the vet center in Rockill, Connecticut. And um we talk about this all the time and I never been to a town council to talk about this, but I I believe you should go by the law that the governor has now. The latest law it says this. Now, when it came out, the law was different and it was changing and you guys like picked the first one where it says, you know, just the building, pay for the land, and now this one says to go all the way back to October 1st, 2024 and and put it in and go buy what's here. So, I believe the town should re reimburse me my two grand back and give me one car off. And I also believe any other 100% veteran that's in this town, you should do the same thing for them, too. And I'm I'm up

here. And that's what my uh my thing is. I want to tell you that, you know, I believe that I I shouldn't you guys should go by the law the way the governor wrote it, you know, cuz we are in Connecticut. And um and that's really all I got to say. I'm uh I moved here from South Carolina. and I was there for 5 years, but I grew up in Weathersfield, Connecticut. That's where I got drafted from. I'm a Connecticut guy all the way. Uh, and uh, you know, I served in in Vietnam. I really don't like getting into it, but I'll tell you, you know, um, I was drafted. I was number two. And, uh, I did uh I was in fire. I was on fire bases, artillery, little fire bases, 2 meters from the Cambodian border. I did eight fire bases and I stayed there 443 days and uh and yeah, I got PTSD and I'm not ashamed of it. They taught me how to live with it and tell people and I'm just a regular guy, you know, and uh that's why I'm here telling you about the taxes. I think you should exempt me and all veterans that live in this town that are like me, not just me, all of them. And if they paid you money after October 1st, 2024, I believe you should reimburse all of us. And that's all I got to say. Thank you. There you know,

Greg. We will look into that. Thank you. It's an agenda item for later on in the the meetings, you know. Yeah, we talked about it at the last meeting and it's we're it's number uh now it's 9D and I hope your luck has been better than this draft number two because I I was in that same draft. I was with men that ran away and went to Canada and went to Europe. I never saw them again. Yeah. I didn't didn't run. We salute you.

Thank you. Thank you for letting us speak. I'm Peter Pac, 59 Middle Hatam Road, and I'm here uh I don't mean to rehash something, but I'm I've been thinking a great deal and talking to neighbors about all that happened surrounding the bioolids processing plant uh run by Griffin Residuals, and that's I know they've withdrawn from this, but there remain in my mind a number of questions that need to be answered so that a similar situation can be avoided in the future. These are questions based on public documents I've seen, meeting minutes and reports in the press, probably not knowing all that you know, that I would like the council to answer. In 2024, the former public utilities administrator approached Griffin about a bioolids plant. What caused him to contact Griffin? What other town officials were aware of that overture? Why weren't towns people made aware of this proposal? Regardless of whether this was a facility the town would support, the way such a big project was approached raises questions about having proper procedures and safeguards in place for any such town undertaking. How was Griffin, a relatively new company based in Kentucky, which only opened its first bioolid plant in 2023, selected? Were there any requests for proposals put out to the many companies that build such plants and have more experience? Did anyone call the towns where Griffin has plans to ask officials there about their experience? Did anyone visit a bioolids plant before planning got so far along? In the fall of 2024, Griffin and the town apparently with the knowledge of the utilities administrator, joint facilities committee, and town manager entered into a letter of intent to pursue a plant.

Council members reportedly said they had no knowledge of this letter. Why not? In February 2025, Griffin offered a contract proposal which was reviewed by the town legal council and revised. Which town officials were involved with the drawing up of this contract involving two $40 million phases of construction? Again, was the town council aware of this activity? Were the officials involved required to tell the council a contract was being drawn at a minimum in executive session until it was signed? If the council knows the answers to these questions, town's people should hear them as soon as tonight. The circumstances that led up to the engagement of Griffin, the officials who were involved, and the rules the town has or should have about such dealmaking need to be the subject of a full public post-mortem and clarification to avoid similar missteps in the future. Thank you. My name is Lori Whechch. I live at 41 Cone Road. Um, since the last meeting and the firing of Anthony D. There were multiple and I know for sure letters that were written to the town council with regard to the residents looking for a cease and desist on any projects that Anthony D. Simone was involved in. One of those projects is 30 long crossing which from what the residents see down there things are progressing. Now, if there were unanswered questions and and problems as far as Anthony D. Simone

goes, I think now that the town council is in charge of the WPCA, that they should be reviewing everything that that man has done in this town before it moves for forward that, you know, the the taxpayers have lost faith in anything that's going on. Um, I think a third party engineer should be involved. They should take a look of what's going on down there and find out what's happening. There's a lot of things that went on that nobody seemed to be aware of. Also, the letters went to the town council and they were multiple letters, but we never none and we've all been in contact with each other got a response from anybody. And these letters probably started after the 10th which was the last meeting but there was no response. Now I have written letters to the council before and gotten a response like the next day I believe from Mr. Markham but e there's been silence. There's been nothing said about anything. So we're all waiting and wondering what's going on and and how this is going to be handled now that you are in charge of the WPCA. I think it it means that you all should be looking into it for the simple fact that this just fell in your lap basically. So, you should take the time to evaluate every project that's been going on in town that has anything to do with him. And and and we're asking for that. Um it's just there's so so many other things to to look into. Also um I wanted to ask about the assessment

housing assessment that came out and they had said that if you have a problem with the assessment than to make an appointment and go in and talk to someone. Well, the someone you end up talking to were three residents that I don't know who they are, what they do, what authority they have. Um, I had a friend that went in, had a discess assessment on Monday. Okay. They said to his face, "We have no authority, but we'll get back to you with a letter in 10 days." He got a letter like the next day denied from the same three people that said that they had no authority. Who is in charge of that? Who do they answer to? Who how did they get that position? And and I don't understand the whole routine of that.

Okay. So, um that I would love to hear what goes on with but thank you very much. Okay. the police tell me that they're elected only. Yeah. Can the town manager answer how that process worked so that it would answer other questions? Can we hold it till the end of public comment and maybe just let listen to everyone and then let it respond to that one or do you want to do it? I just didn't know if other people had the same concern if it would help to explain it.

The the board of assessment appeals are elected positions. Those three people were elected. Um there your town's people they uh are asked give an impartial judgment of of the assessment and uh make sure it's comparable with the other assessments in town. But they're elected officials. They were voted for last November. Right. Last November. Correct. Fundamentally that's the answer. you you've I think served on that body at one point in the past

and they have the authority to make those decisions on revisions to assessments and modifications that are appropriate in their in their uh determination based on the training that they receive and the information that's presented to them. So that's well they need to stop lying to your face when you sit in front of like I did the other night. And I asked you this judgment. Oh we don't we're just regular citizens. My wife says so you're a moderate. Yep. He's passing law today. We get a letter from each of them all at once. Everybody said denial. Don't stop lying to their face.

She has absolutely no car. I think we need a new town manager. Next public. All right. Next. Anyone else wish to make public remarks?

Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity. My name is Valerie Hilbaker. I live at Nine Lena Lane. I continue to be um concerned about the um emerging information from the debacle of the bioolids plant. In particular, there was an email that was s circulated on social media that showed the uh agreement between the town offered by Mr. D. Simone and Mrs. Wette. Now, if that is a true email, an actual email that was not made up by somebody, but let's for the moment assume it's real. That agreement was negotiated. Our town manager and Ms. Podge were involved in the negotiations and it was documented documenting the agreement that arose out of the negotiations. That is unethical behavior if true on the part of Mrs. Wet, the town manager, and Mrs. Hodgej. and I respectfully request that you either fire the town employees or require them to resign. And quite frankly, Mrs. Wette should not have been sending letters or emails or anything on this topic to anyone given that she was personally profiting from the proposal. That is unethical behavior that is also not allowed under the town charter. So, we'll wait while you resign because you're not supposed to be here. You cannot batch that.

I figured since we were talking about unethical behavior in Cox and Hodgej, um I my question for you is um do you agree um as as far as um the future of East Hampton is concerned that uh you have final today. I trust the chair. You're supposed to be the address the chair.

All right. So, um the the planning committee um basically has no no say at all. It's a smoke screen. Um and he has final say and so does Hodgej. Um and they're on record saying it. So, the survey um shouldn't even exist. Um so, that speaks to unethical behavior. I just want to point that out.

We can prove it.

Hi, Rebecca Harvey Flanders Road. Um, so I guess the first question I have is in one of the videos that we saw um that have been circulating, Griffin was supposedly in a deal with some type of development down in Middle Hatam. So when we were told that the Bioolids company was pulling out of that deal, was he pulling out of both deals or just the Bioolid deal? And that was said by Anthony D. Simone in a meeting where he actually referenced having many numerous conversations with David Cox about all of this. Um, in the emails that were kind of touched on, I do agree that certain well, anything that Anthony D. Simone has had to deal with since 2024 be evaluated. Um, I think that the decisions may not align with community needs or best interest. Um, I really think that a request for an objective re-evaluation of all related projects, including Long Crossing, where I'm kind of hearing rumors that that was supposed to be an 8 foot like project and now it's 20 ft after D. Simone got involved. I don't know how true that is, but I think that it should go back to the prior um the prior blueprints from before D. Simone got involved with that project. Um, I definitely think that the WPCA board members that also serve on the joint facility board need to be removed from those positions because that's a direct conflict of interest moving forward. If you're kind of removed from one party, you should be removed from the other. Um, I do still think that a full investigation into at least David Cox needs to be made. Um, I do not feel as though he has the town's best interest. there are now kind of things that we've dug up from when he was in Wisconsin that have very similar lack of transparency issues and that leadership role also needs to come along with accountability and I don't think anybody is really holding him

accountable for some of these decisions. Um and because of that we have lost transparency. We have lost full trust in our town manager and people on planning and zoning and most of the town council. I think that because of that, we really need to sit back and think of budget season and if everything has been in our best interest, but until all of that can be evaluated and everybody's FOI requests have been um acted upon and uh returned to us, I don't think I think that the town council count, excuse me, town council council should really um think about a budget freeze for this year and not move further until everything can be reassessed. Thank you. Anyone else?

South. Janice Kavanagh, 204 Hog Hill Road, East Hampton. Um, when we were here last, Ted said that we could um petition the town to um buy that property and that we needed 50 signatures. Am I correct? Well, and to to clarify that the board of finance has approved the purchase of 292 at their last meeting uh last Monday. Uh I believe at some point this evening hope we have to uh send it to a um a public hearing and then to the to a town meeting. So we are in process. It's already in the works. I do have a a little petition written up with all the signatures of the people who signed at the last um couple of meetings I'd like to leave with you. And um I listened to a lot of the WPCA meetings and um it really appeared that everybody including you, Mr. Cox, knew about what they were doing. And I just You make $141,000 a year from the town of East Hampton. What do you do for a living? You know what do you do? Cuz you're not protecting us.

Yeah. Um, does that have to go to Patty? Are we supposed to take it or does it have to go to Patty Burnham? It should go to the town clerk. Yeah. Okay.

I can just drop it up. Yep. Thank you. Sandu Sephora 147 Colchester Avenue. Uh just uh to add my voice to uh those that are here. Uh just want to uh one thing new is um I we've learned that I believe the town of Simsbury has asked the state to defer uh certain laws regarding uh their development and I think we should do the same. So, I asked the town council to pursue uh deferring any state laws that go into effect this year based upon what's happened in town, the WPCA, and questions regarding the off um um the way things were handled. Um second, um I've seen the copy of the letter that was presented by Mr. D. Simone to Karen. Um Karen, you're all about uh transparency, but you haven't answered I know that you haven't accepted this. You mentioned that at the meeting that you have not accepted this, but I think you need to give a full um answer as to why you haven't or at least I don't think you have told everybody upfront that you were given this this deal. Um and ex and and recuse yourself, which you should have done. That's the only you know I mean everyone makes mistakes. I mean you this was given to on uh says here January 30th. Um and considering all the things that have happened um I think you uh we we deserve a little transparency and explanation um and honesty regarding mistakes that were made. Um um that's about it. Thanks.

There anyone else? Uh, Rebecca Haj, 28 Old Miltown Road in Cobalt. Um, firstly, I just want to talk about the board of assessment appeals. I have my meeting at 8:30. I um I did turn in three requests for meetings. I have three properties. All have problems. Um the board of the assessor's office only granted me one meeting for my residents. She assured me she could correct the other two. Since February 19th, I've had emails with her back and forth. She's been unable to resolve the other two. Um, I just want to know that I will get a chance for another appeal meeting if she can't correct these on her own, which she said she could. It's stuff where acreage was wrong and a survey was filed with a town clerk and she never corrected it. Um, a deed was survey filed with the town clerk where acreage was conveyed to someone else and she never corrected that. Um, she thinks she can correct them. She hasn't. I just want to be sure that we're going to we're going to do the right thing here. Um I know other people have been disappointed, some mentioned it, other people that aren't here tonight have been disappointed with the process with the board of appeals. So I just wanted to state that for the record. The other thing concerning which somebody touched on is the PCD plans that from 2016, it seems like we're not following what we put in place back then. Um, you know, it's been clear recently that everybody's against this overdevelopment that we've been doing anyway. And I think I'd like to see the town council and I think everybody else would like talk about what all these development plans are that are kind of in the works but not fully talked about. And I want to be sure that our 2026 POCD

is even making sense and the timing of things make sense because they don't seem like they are making sense. And I don't know why we're bothering with the process if we're not gonna follow it. Thank you.

Anyone else? Y Robert Bear 108 Middletown A pretty sure everybody knows already. So there was a special meeting that fired Done which was a start. Also in that meeting they were supposed to be talking about discipline action to him. Nothing got done. He's in countless emails on him. All different ones. So, you can't play stupid anymore. It's not just me beating a dead horse here. It's time that people, you guys actually take the blame. I don't care who pushes on who, but more has to be done. We're not just going to stop because one person got fired. He involved other people. I don't have to even point fingers anymore cuz everybody knows. The fact is more has to be done. We're not going away. We all live here and we're all affected by this. We're not protected by the people that were either voted in or hired. We have a say. Yes, you guys are on the board and you'll point fingers at him. He'll point and say it's your responsibility. Somebody has to take blame. There was a meeting. His appointment employment was supposed to be discussed and it was not. Done was a problem. Well, we also have one there. There's more on the board, but I will do one person at a time. We're not going away. And I'm not going to have somebody that takes bribes, crooked, I don't know what the gain is out of it, running this town. We're sick of it. Something needs to be done

because I don't I don't know how all the legal stuff works. I'm not a lawyer. I'm not smart. My attorney is addressing other matters with the WPCA, whatever it is. But this is between me and him. I have been here. I have been in his office before when he didn't help us out. This incident just happened to got a lot more media attention and everything. So, something little bit got done. I'm not going away. My kids will be the fifth generation. I messed up in the last meeting and said fourth. Fifth generation. We're not going anywhere. It's time he goes. There's got to be a way we can all bump together as a community and get them out if you guys won't. There has to be something that we have a say. We pay taxes. We all live in this town. We have a say. He's going to go. I don't care if it's easy, if you guys have to go legal ways, or however the hell you have to do it. It's going to happen. He's just as crooked as D. Simone. And a time you guys can't play the thing. I didn't know cuz you do. Thank you.

Anyone else? Any hands? No. Hands online. If not going to close this public remarks session. Moving on. Presentations. You have no presentations. See? Agenda item six, bids and contracts review and possible action on bid for towing, maintenance, and repair police vehicles.

I'll invite Chief Wesner to come up and review this with you. Good evening. Uh, tonight before you is the results of the bid that was opened up on March 10th, uh, 2026 at 11:00 a.m. Only two people bid for the towing, maintenance, and repair police vehicles. They were Belltown Motors and Family Ford of Enfield. The uh hourly rate uh for Belltown Motors was $120 an hour to work on the cars, the police vehicles. Family Ford of Enfield was 175. Um Belltown Motors agreed to uh do list minus 20% on the parts and uh family Ford of Enfield was cost plus 20%. In addition, there was uh Belltown Motors would not charge a diagnostic fee, but Family Ford of Enfield would charge $175 diagnostic fee on every vehicle. Um the towing rates uh were substantially higher. Um Belltown Motors has won the bid every year since I've been here. We're very happy with Belltown Motors. Uh they provide good quality service to the police cars and they make sure they're up and running. My recommendation tonight is that the town council approve the awarding of the bid to Belltown Motors to be effective April 9th, 2026.

I'll make that motion to recommend Beltown Motors to be awarded the bid effective April 9th, 2026. I'll second that. Second. Is there any discussion? If not, those in favor of the uh motion, please signify by saying I. I nay. Motion is passed. Award the contract for Belltown Motors. Thank you very much,

Mr. Chairman. There is there is one individual who perhaps was struggling to get her hand up as part of public remarks. I don't know whether you want to allow that comment to come in. Yes. Jennifer, can you hear me? Yeah. Hello.

Uh, my comment is actually just for Karen. In the past two meetings, I asked a very specific question and it's been brought up tonight already twice. Whether you gave an easement in exchange for a free sewer hookup on record, you had said no. you denied the request, which is fine,

but an email dated January 30th along with the minutes from the February 3rd WPCA meeting shows you in fact we're getting $17,000 worth of free stuff. There are copies of this email for anybody in the room that may want one who might not be online. Um, I know that after your question, that's probably when you decided to backtrack and cancel that agreement, but that'll come out in an FOI uh when Mr. Mr. Cox gets his fingers out of his ass and does his job. Also, speaking of Mr. Cox, why is he still here? He destroyed his little village at his last job, then resigned. I'm not really sure who did the hiring of him at most jobs, they asked for references, and those references are actually called, and that obviously didn't happen with him. I mean, I don't know what you're waiting for. Do you want him to destroy this town just like he did his last one? You guys need to do your job and fire him. And I don't need an answer from Karen. I already know the answer. and so does the town. That's all I have. Public remarks are closed now.

Agenda item eight, continued business, subcommittee reports and updates. Are there any?

There are none. Ignore everything. 8B matters related to WPCA restructuring. They got the WPCA ordinance. So, you have in front of you an ordinance that was drafted by the town attorney's office that will uh effect uh or put into effect the change that you uh approved at your meeting u on I think it was March 12 uh at which you decided that the WPCA would become would be eliminated and would become the town council. So the ordinance you have in front of you uh affects that makes that happen. It goes through the changes of titling and and establishing the town council in that regard.

So how does this work? Do we need a motion to accept this and then it goes to the public hearing or how does it work?

So you would need to adopt a motion to uh set this for public hearing u at a future meeting as we've sort of discussed. uh there might be a reason to have a a special meeting in replacement of your April 14 meeting. uh hold a special meeting on April 7 at which this ordinance would come back along with your regular business uh and could be adopted uh so that the the uh time period pursuant to the charter between the time an ordinance is adopted and the time it becomes effective uh can go into place and you can by the end of April uh have the legalities taken care of uh and be in the role of the WPCA. So, I'll make a motion that we set a public hearing for the April 7 uh on the ordinance number 2026.1.

Second, discussion not those in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I post nay.

Mr. Chair, I stay in front by voting. What is six and one extension? Six and fifth one one extension there other matters related to the W DCA at this point. So, I did provide you with a little bit of information um uh regarding the 30 long crossing project and uh um I'd like to recuse myself from any discussion on that topic.

So, the town doesn't get you.

Let's hold the remarks, please. At any rate, I've given you uh some material related to uh 30 long crossing uh and uh how you and uh to allow you to sort of talk about how you want to proceed there. Uh attorney Carella is in the room if you have questions for him uh that help you in determining how you want to move forward there. Notwithstanding the fact of course that you do have an executive session uh where you can talk with him a little bit more freely. Um but u that was the main project that I think you had received correspondence on uh and certainly we have uh information requests related to. So um council may want to talk about how they want to address that, what the plan might be for that, whether they want to bring uh an opportunity for the developer to come in and talk or how you want to handle that. So that's sort of in front of you now at this point for general conversation,

Jack.

So it seems to me from the information you provided that there really is no agreement on that sewer extension. Um, my recommendation is that we not approve at this point. In fact, I'm not even sure till before till the 7th we even have the authority to do it. But even then, I recommend that we not approve any um extensions until we're um much more further along in our our work as a WPCA. I I also don't think it would be a bad idea as Mr. Cox just said is to bring the developer in to bring the council up to date on what his uh perception of what he thinks is approved what he you know and what what conversations that he and and uh Mr. D Simone had. So I I I think that that would also be inappropriate if we are going to um become the the WPCA. I think we should be brought up to date um from his point of view as well as our staff point of view.

Agreed. But unless there's a a written agreement uh in my view there's no agreement. So to be clear, there is only in place the approval, the basic approval for the extension. Um there appears to be a an approved set of plans, but the key piece that is missing at this point and had not been agreed upon at this point uh was the developers agreement. that last piece that talked about what the if you will the financial arrangement was going to be, who was paying for what, how much were reimbursements going to be or how much were there in waiverss of fees. Those sorts of things have not had not been finalized and that would fall to the town council to address as the WPC. But there's no agreement on which um way the pipes would run that where the pipes would run, what elevation

elevation is is an open issue from the developer um and perhaps is a reason for the town council to review the the whole project in terms of um not only the extension of sewer to the area, but also what I'll refer to it as the availability of that sewer for other expansions beyond that area. And that goes to the elevation in the ground. And I think that's uh a piece of the puzzle that should perhaps be reconsidered uh by by the council when it is the piece the WPCA. May I ask a town attorney something? Rich, is that okay? Yeah, he's here for us.

Yeah. I think it would be an executive Rich, how you doing? Morning. These things that we're um we're talking about and you know reviewing the projects, etc. Uh should we be waiting to do that until we've gone through the the formal notice of appointment, the ordinance has been adopted? Right. Is that your recommendation? I just want to make sure a proper authority can talk about these things, talk about them openly, and get to the bottom of whatever we need to get the bottom of it.

That's correct. I mean, at the moment, you don't serve as a WPCA until the ordinance is adopted. All right. You you your actions last time certainly signified your intention to do that, but you need to go through that legal process of adopting an ordinance that designates the town council, the legislative body as the WPCA. only then will you be able to act in that capacity. Okay, that I think that's important for everybody to understand. And can you explain that that's where the town the public hearing is and the

Well, right now that you've just uh passed the resolution setting that ordinance and that amendment to that ordinance for a public hearing and your vote at a subsequent meeting, then after 20 days, it will become you will be you that will act that ordinance will have been adopted and you will be able to act as the WPCA. So clarification, we cannot do anything until minimum April 27th. So I have a question. I think that's the right timing of it. Yes. So as of right now then everything is paused in terms of the developer cannot move forward with anything going forward right now until

at the moment the WPCA as it sat prior to your action last meeting is still the WPCA. Um, I don't know what the status of that development agreement is, but it would certainly recommend that the WPCA doesn't act on it at the moment given the fact that you've started this process of designating yourselves, which you are statutoily allowed to do. All right? Just have to go through the process. All right? And if so, you know, my recommendation would be not to have the WPCA act on anything at the moment. Await for the public hearing and the vote of the ordinance to, you know, to see if it passes. Um because if it doesn't pass then the WPCA is still in control as that authority. But until that time sounds like you guys are the town council is going to be taking that position over.

But if they don't if W the other WPCA doesn't take any action then the developer can't do anything can't do anything. At the moment there's no development agreement. So I don't know that the developer should be doing anything either. Right. I mean if certainly he does so at his own risk. Um but that's at the moment he should not be doing anything without a development agreement in hand. That's typically how that proceeds Rich. One other one other thing. Uh

looking longterm and what's best for the town. Um, I'm not so sure that the town council should always add infin item for forever be the uh WPCA where we're doing this and it's a smart move I think to do it now

because, you know, come in and hopefully, you know, get to a bottom a lot of the questions that we've got answered and I think we will and I think we'll go further than perhaps what's been uh expressed this evening. Um, but WPCA members have real good ones, the the proper ones, you know, they've got to have the time to do it. They're volunteers like we are. They've got to have the time to do it to uh get up, bone up on on, you know, rules, regulations, and and standards that uh WPCA members really need to have. So there might be a time in the future um near or far to some degree where we're going to want to um establish a WPCA different than the town council. How do we go about doing that given given this ordinance? Would it require a new ordinance?

It would require a new ordinance. So the statute allows the legislative body to designate itself as the town as the WPCA. or to you have actually a wide variety of ways of having a WPCA either elected or appointed um you know the number of members on that WPCA um so I think you know going forward you'd have to have another ordinance similar to this to reestablish or establish a new WPCA separate and distinct from your role as town council.

Okay. Are you familiar with the joint facilities here? Uh could you explain the difference between the WPCA and joint facilities for everybody here? Clear that up. Who has responsibility for what in what areas and what real estate? The the joint facilities agreement was adopted in the 1970s to address an order from the state. I think that the time DP uh to address water pollution control issues that the town was not handling and cobalt um Colchester was under the same uh type of order from the state D. uh a um the statute the the w the chapter 103 of the Connecticut general statutes allows municipalities to join together to address these types of issues and that's what the towns of East Hampton and at the time the burrow of Colchester uh did and created this joint facilities where they jointly agreed to handle wastewater treatment uh in the through a centralized facility here in East Hampton. East Hampton had owned the facility prior to the joint facilities arrangement and uh Colchester tied in so to speak uh with the transfer of their wastewater to East Hampton for treatment and ultimately discharge out to the river. The uh the joint facilities um is again allowed by state statute and it has all the same powers and authorities that the WPCA has. So they are the ones that are in control of the creation of the construction management operation of the facility itself.

Um and that's how that operates. I see. Clear mean by the facility. The facility being not only the the water treatment facility on Gildersleeve Road, but also the pipes and the lift stations and pump stations and everything that's associated with the sewage system from here to Cobalt to Colchester. So that's the that's the sewage system. That's what the statute gives the and that's the joint facilities responsibility. That's the joint facilities responsibility.

WPCA then explain what that is. Where where does joint facilities end and WPCA pick up? PCA is a local body, local agency that uh operates the facilities here, but also is in charge of setting rates for sewage uh uh assessments. Uh entering into development agreements with developers for the extension of the sewage system uh and uh and managing the policies about where sewers uh should go and and frankly shouldn't go. One of the things that the statute allows the WPCA to do is to designate areas along with your plan of conservation and development to say we're going to have sewers in this area of town and we're going to avoid sewers in that area of town. And so that's one of the policy functions of the WPCA.

And the WPCA then only has um authority or say over East Hampton. Is that correct? the WPCA only right for those types of policy decisions that's they can say we're going to have sewers in this area of East Hampton or that area of East Hampton they have no say over Colchester and Colchester has no say in East Hampton about where sewers should or should not go okay thanks thanks for clarification thank you

I have a question for so you mentioned that the WPCA has the ability to designate where the sewer is going to be expanded to if and or when we return the WPCA back to its own board. Is that a power that can be retained by the town council or do you have is that something that has to be given up if the town council um

the I get your I get your question. the the WPCA as a body is the body that has the authority to designate the sewer areas in town and so the town council could not retain jurisdiction over that policy decision. Your plan of conservation and development speaks to that. They have to act within those uh parameters as well and they have a hand in stating you know logistically where sewers can and can't go. I mean, I think there's also a practical aspect to some of this, but also a policy aspect, but that's vested in the the authority that you give them and that the state statutes give them to maintain, operate, and construct sewage systems.

Can the town council have supervisory so the WPCA could have No, not No. That's the point is that the town council's control here is to designate itself as the WPCA or to figure out how you want to establish one and again you have a lot of discretion as to how that body gets established. You can have them as as elected people, elected, you know, members of the public. You could have them as appointed members. Um, you as as to their their number, how many people you can have on there.

And as it as it relates to the WPCA, I mean the uh PC right now, we're in process of of redoing it uh for our tenure. And um many of the questions um on there um were questions about sewer, about how to expand, where to expand. It was, you know, unfortunately it appears to be very leading like they're going to shove sewers down the throats of the taxpayer and it's just how do you want it done? Um now the it's my understanding that the POCD is done through uh WPCA which is appointed by the town council but if they take the survey results be as they are which is in my opinion is very pointed towards sewer and they adopt that into the PCD then we have no say on where the sewers would go as as a uh community. Correct. They would have to then abide by what is now the new PC. Correct.

That's true.

I'm I'm not exactly that didn't exactly follow you all the way. Let me just let me let me answer what I think is the question you're asking which is does the WPCA have to follow the plan of conservation and development or does the plan of conservation and development override the WCPCA's? And it's the WPCA has the authority to establish a water pollution control plan. That's the only authority that can develop that under state statute, the WPCA. And in that plan, water pollution control plan, it's the body that says where I'm going to read it to you here, uh, designate and delate the boundaries of areas served by the municipal sewage systems, areas where facilities are planned, areas where sewer should be avoided, and areas served by the community sewage system not owned by the municipality. So decentralized plans. So the WPCA is the authority that establishes the water pollution control plan for the town. The plan of conservation and development can can speak to that. It can say we we advise this is where it can go and where it shouldn't go. But again, logistically the actual construction and development of sewers is got to be the purview of the WPCA.

I guess and that makes a lot of sense. And so I guess my next question to Dave would be um why would there be so many questions on the POCD relating to sewer expansion if the taxpayers don't have any say and the PCD does not dictate where the sewer is going. It's the WPCA that does that. So why would we waste so many questions basically saying we're going to force sewers down here. Where do you want them to go? I think I think it to be honest it was very I I'd call it more advisory than anything else.

So we talked about this a lot and I and I and personally I keep talking about how do we get the POC? How do I phrase this? How do I get the POC? How do we get the POCCD to um inform that information that is the WPCA plans better? And I think that's part of the reason why we're trying to understand as much as we can about what level if any tolerance the community has for that so that the steering committee and the planning and zoning commission who eventually has to adopt that um can can know can have some sense of that and if it's zero then it's zero but if it's but I struggle with that personally how do I this exact thing that that attorney Carell is talking about is and that's frankly why we're kind of in this situation of how do we make those two things align and admitted I I I think that we need to keep looking at what are the options for if you will forcing that

so

because I think they should align and there there there needs to be an alignment between what is the land use policy statement of the town the PCD and what the plans and the actual actions of the WPCA are. And this has been sort of this undercurrent of conversation, I'll call it, especially at a staff level of how do we fix that? And I don't have the answer for that right now because as you can hear, we've got this legal strangeness, I'll call. So, we've heard be a couple months ago um many residents that came out and spoke very loudly. They did not want sewer expansion. We had another 300 people here a couple weeks ago do not want sewer expansion. We do not want How do these people need to do to get it through for transparency? Right.

We don't want it. How do how does that go? Who did that whole chief?

I think I think you're doing it. I mean, it is unprecedented, not unprecedented, it is rare that the legislative body of a town takes the step to disband the WPCA take those responsibilities onto itself. All right. So your actions in being vocal about this and having the town council do what they've done is that's what you have the ability to do. So I don't know if that answers your question, but there's no the WPCA has control over the the sewage system. That's that's really the bottom line. And and you have to have a WPCA. Either you're going to do it or WPCA is going to do it, but you have to have one. and they're going to be the ones in control of the sewage system. That's really what it comes down to.

So, can I say something? Can I clarify too for the public? So, based on this information that we're all hearing and that we've read going through the last several weeks, we have no authority over the WPCA. So, the the um until now, not until not until next. Yeah, but we have not. So the inference that we had control and knew everything that was going on and had these side deals happening was completely false. So you said you had meetings, but it wasn't I've never been to a meeting.

Well, that's state statute. So maybe maybe state statute needs to change to to alleviate that problem. So maybe state statute needs to change, but that's something that has to be done at the state level to address those matters when things like this happen within a municipality. So I've never been to a WPCA meeting. I'm new. I've never been to a WPCA meeting. If you can find one that I've been to, let me know.

Whatever. You don't need your I will I will one more question. When we set up if we set up a new WPCA, are there any limits to the number of people or the I mean you said the methods are varied like we can elect, you can appoint. Um, are there any limits to the number of people? No, there's no limits. I think logistically you don't want to have too many, but you want them to be able to function, but there's no no limit. Yeah. How many were currently on? Probably seven. Seven.

I think it was seven. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. WPA can buy land, sell their own land, do whatever they want without I believe that is the case. That is the case and that's one of the reasons that we are uh bringing the P WPCA back to the council's uh purview. Well, doing that, but I still didn't get the question answered. From now until April 10th, can the developer down at 30 project with what he's doing? digging whatever until the council takes over.

Can I take a stab at that? Do you want me to answer it? I mean, I'd like to have the attorney answer. I mean, I just Well, he's got approvals for certain things and the sewer is just one faction of it. So, he, you know, can still

So, the reality is he has approvals for different things down there and the sewer is just one facet of that. We can't shut down a job site of something that has already been in process and approved. We're looking to work find out exactly what is going on with the sewer plan. Uh we're hoping that the developer will give us time to understand what is going on. Um but as far as just ceasing all work at the site that we can't do that

to do with the sewer. But as far as we know from what we've not said there's he has no legal right to install a sewer there. There's no development agreement. So he has no legal right. No, there's no was approved because he's got flags up for drainage.

Again, he does have two approvals uh towards the sewer uh lines that are there. there has been agreements that have not there was some questions on the second approval uh that Tony was going back and forth with the developer uh that is on the day that he was terminated. So that those were never finalized. Um but he does have approvals that were done prior subdivision. No, we're talking sewer approvals. I'm sorry. I'm not I'm no longer on planning zoning. I don't know what the subdivision approvals are, but so

for sale as a subdivided block before it's even. So I think that the hand that's raised is Juliet Hajj. If you want to have her answer those questions, you can to tell you sort of where the planning and zoning commission is on those approvals, land use related approvals. I think that's fine. I think that's appropriate. Yeah, let let her talk. Juliet, if you want to give them um give them the answer of what the subdiv what the various approvals for land use he has in that location.

Yeah, I'd be happy to. Um so the eight Alden's two lot subdivision was approved. It's a conditional approval conditioned on the sewers being uh you know brought to the properties otherwise that that subdivision would not have been approved. There are currently approvals on 30 long crossing for a seven lot commercial subdivision. Um you know that that's approved. It's on the books. he could uh start construction on on that subdivision if he chooses to. So, those are the two land use approvals that are current. And I would also emphasize that it is the planning and zoning commission that approves the POC and that the POCD does inform the sewer plan that the WPCA has to create. Dave is correct. We need to be on the same page there. But there can be sewer avoidance areas which they have to identify and sewer expansion areas should they choose to have any. I just wanted to clarify that too.

Juliet, quick question on the seven um lot subdivision. Um you said he could start construction. So it is approved without sewer. So if he had to do septic in there, he is approved for commercial commercial with septic if he doesn't get the sewer or that's not a conditional approval. Correct. It is a conditional approval, but that was a the conditional approval just had to do with the bonding. He didn't he didn't bond for the public improvements. Therefore, we only give a conditional approval, but it was approved with individual septic systems and um I think they have a water system over there. So, okay.

Water system over there. What is wrong with the individual septic systems? You got bigger lots. There's less congestion. They work. They're environmentally safe. There's less nitrogen discharge. What's wrong with individual septic systems? Is if that's directed at me, I there's nothing necessarily wrong with them. It's that is a sensitive area. So the more septic systems you have near a wetlands, you know, that's not a great idea. Well, you do it in the wland review of the area. But yep, they approved it. houses in there and I'm so many houses that exactly

it's pretty simple to figure out building.

All right. Thank you, Juliet. You're welcome. Moving on, discussion of tax, excuse me, consideration of actions regarding acquisition of 292 West High Street. The word do we need on this motion send it to public hearing for the seventh?

No, it has to be a public hear. Does do we require a public hearing on that? um you haven't used public hearings on acquisitions in the past. You've done them you've done them just as a town meeting. It's not a required step. Certainly the council could do that. Um as you saw in the in the resolution um there are some blanks to allow you to decide what the schedule is. As I think I outlined in the memorandum, the board of finance did, as you alluded to earlier, uh authorize a revised resolution using town uh effectively savings to make the acquisition. Uh the reference is to using it for open space and buffer lands uh between adjacent uses and the and the wastewater treatment plant as outlined in the in the resolution for the town council. Um there would be a step that we think we should take and that's to go back to the planning and zoning commission uh which we'll do on April 1st to have them redo uh their review under section 824 of the statutes which requires them to uh provide commentary on the acquisition of land by the town and how that relates to overall planning for the community. self. Uh we'll take that back to them because the original review that they did uh related to using it for an expansion of the WPCA or of the uh the wastewater treatment plant, it's a technicality. I'm sure they're not going to object, but we need to put it in front of them for a different use.

So, are you saying that we could just have a public meeting to have the town approved the purchase on the 7th? Uh that's awfully quick, but yes, you could. I mean, as long as we're all here and they're going to look at it in the first. So, I mean, it's not like we didn't have 300 people coming out here to uh uh you know, talk about it. Um, and we have a petition there for it. So, I don't see where it's an issue to agree. But I would make a motion to set that for public town meeting for the 7th prior to our special meeting. Second. Get it done. Yeah. Yes. Just get it done. Enough is enough. Is

there some further discussion on the motion? If not, those in favor? Opposed? Nay.

Okay. related to that, if I could ask you to review the resolution you have uh now with the filling in of the dates of a special meeting to be held on Tuesday, April 7, uh 2026 at the town hall beginning at 6 p.m. um to act on the resolution. So, if you could approve that resolution with that change that you just approved, uh that would be helpful. And really I highlighted as I said some of the language changes that were made. Uh the open space and buffer lands adjacent to the wastewater treatment plant use of the the undesated unencumbered funds from the general fund. Um okay. I'll make a motion to adopt this resolution uh adding the town meeting to be held on April 7th, 2026 at the town hall on Community Drive at 6 p.m. to act upon the resolution regarding the uh forgoing re uh resolution.

Second motion made and seconded on the resolution. Is there any discussion? Is there any discussion? No. No. Hearing none I call the question. Those in favor of the resolution signify by saying I I n six with one abstension we have forgotten to get this one up there.

All right. True story. Yeah, perfect. Moving on. Agenda item 8 D, discussion of tax relief programs. Uh so we've excuse me we've had a number of of kind of peripheral discussions around uh taxes tax relief uh and the council decided to come back to this topic today uh and look through uh what you have in terms of of options uh that may still be available to improve um improve certain uh abatements or to add abatements or uh to the community. So I've given you uh a variety of pieces of information. One is the list of from uh from this legislative off uh from the office of legislative research rather of the mandatory programs that are in place that everybody has uh that everybody has available to them uh provided they qualify. I've also given you the list of uh in that same from the same uh group uh the local options for property tax relief. Tried to identify for you in that material, the ones that have been previously adopted by councils uh so that you're aware of those and identify for you ones that are relatively new or that had not been adopted in the past uh

that you could consider. uh and so I kind of leave it to you for an open discussion of what are the changes you think you want to make. I've also provided you with the code uh sections that talk about taxation uh as well as the uh changes from public acts that were adopted late last year that are not codified yet into the state statutes. uh so that you know kind of at least as much as we can about where you stand or where we stand on what the optional uh tax relief programs are. So my understanding is that these first two section sen seniors and for veterans they're available to everybody and we have to do nothing but it um it seems to me and I don't know but maybe people aren't aware of them. I mean, do we have any evidence or data on what percentage of eligible people uh take take of advantage of these programs?

Uh I don't know that we have that particular piece of information. Uh we do know that some people take advantage of these programs as I noted in for example the reference to uh the uh relief for elderly homeowners which is how it's described in the in the code. That particular one uh the main reason that people choose not to that's basically in shorthand that's the tax freeze. Um, that's the option where someone once they get into the program never pays more in taxes. And the piece that gets abaded, the difference between what they pay and what they would have owed, uh, is a lean. And that is the is a lean on the property. 0% interest, but it's a lean on the property. And that has been, uh, that was a decision made by a previous council. that has been a um has been what most people cite as a reason they don't want to get into that program because it becomes a drain on the asset.

Yeah. Could I talk to that because I was on council when we approved that. Um, and it was specifically for we wanted to help the senior residents, but that doesn't mean we needed to help all their generational and if they're going to sell the property after, there was no reason that the town shouldn't re be reimbursed for um the taxes that, you know, it was fine to freeze their taxes, but you know, in the end, if they were when the property is sold, um, whether they go into a nursing home instead of it going to state for title, you know, the tenant wants to be reimbursed for the taxes that should have been paid over the course of time.

And there are some people that do that. Um and and it made a lot of sense to us when we put it in place. Is that true of other programs or is that the only one is created? Some of them are income based that are you like if you're at state minimum or you those are direct credits and all citizens have to apply for you have to apply annually, right? So the programs are available. So to the gentleman's point earlier, programs are available, but you have to apply for them. Sometimes it's a bianual just a re-upping uh new information. Some of them you don't have to to come in. Uh it depends on the program, frankly. Right. Um

but they come into East Hampton. They come Yeah. They to our assessor's office or some of them are handled by the collector's office, but they're basically Yeah. They come here to the town hall. But from what I'm understanding on the veterans one, we're not necessarily giving the maximum. Is that correct? So on the veterans exemption that just came in uh in last year um last year it's a mandatory 100% on the structure on the primary structure

for for um veterans who are 100% totally disabled based on their VA rating. Um and I didn't say that quite right, but that's essentially what it is. And the other part of that was in 2025, grand list of 25, municipalities had the option to do up to two acres of land. Um, I know there's been a suggestion that there was a change there and there have been some modifications uh to to some programs around veterans. Uh we're not aware of one that made the 2acre uh not optional, but that is on the table um uh for the community to decide if it wants to add uh optional for the 26 or so people that get um that 100% on their primary residence. Uh whether we want to add the two acres of land as an exemption as well u for those folks.

Yeah. Um, it I I would I would make a motion that we add that, but I think we should kind of do it in totality. But I also had a question. Um, is it my understanding that if we do that the um the exemption follows through to the surviving spouse uh unless they have remarried? That's correct. I because I would like that to, you know, because let's face it, if um uh we have a total disabled veteran, their spouse is uh has quite a bit of of work uh to assist them. And I think they deserve that even if the veteran has passed and and I would um of course

so I would definitely think that we should be adding the additional uh two acres along with the spouse. And then the other one that um uh I saw here was um gold star parents and spouses. Um I think we should absolutely thankfully we don't have any in town. Um but uh there are some property exemptions for the gold star families that I think we we should absolutely implement. If someone lost their uh child to uh protecting us, that's the least we can do for them.

Yeah. I think I have never seen I've looked at tax regulations as you have all my professional career. I have never seen such a patchwork of complicated tax exemptions. Certainly in the income tax code of the United States even a lot of the exemptions and there are several in this information uh you know for this group for that group for this group that group this income range etc. First of all, they're very um uh you got to really get through the swamp to understand what it's uh what they're saying. But ultimately, with the exception of maybe one or two, they give you maybe $1,000 or a $2,000 exemption. That doesn't mean $1,000 off what you pay. That means a th00and $2,000 reduction on your $300,000 house, which amounts to nothing. You know, our state thinks uh they've done such a great job uh with tax exemptions. And I'll tell you, it's a lot of confusion and the money doesn't really go to the people uh who really need it in our towns. Uh that's a problem with all of these things. We have we have to offer them. We want to offer them what we can without a doubt. But I I'll tell you, um the state does us no favors as property tax uh payers at all. And uh you know again to really do the best job in town, we should be really taking a look at all of these things. all of these dozens of property tax exemptions in a task force

or over a period of time, relatively short period of time and really promoting and expanding what we can given given the fact that we're shackled by the state and we don't have, you know, authority by the state to do it. But, uh, that's what we really should do uh here. I don't mind making these adjustments that we talked about.

I I would like to add the the ones for the veterans. Um my my question though um I I absolutely I'll make the motion in a second, but for the additional exemption for the uh permit and total disabled to include the the two acres. Um there is a also um the gold star uh the exemption for gold star uh parents and spouses. Um where's the

it's on page number eight of 11. Um and again it's it's something it's it's uh up to $20,000 or 10% of the assessment value of the real estate to be eligible for this exemption. the claimment income cannot exceed um set income limits for a single person. I mean, anything we can do um I would like to mirror the the state on that. Uh what that whatever they're allowed we can uh give to the the gold star family and spouses. Um there is also um an exemption for income limited veterans uh which is also in here. Um municipalities may establish an exemption for veterans with income up to 50,100 based on the federal AGI. Municipalities that do so must exempt 10% of the assessed value. Again, to Rich's point, it may not be a lot, but something's better than nothing, and this is what the gives us right now. So, I think we should adopt that as well. Um, Ted, do you think we can recommend this maybe to the assessor to bring these that you're talking about all together, formalize it, and put it in writing instead of shooting? Well, I was wondering if we could just adopt all the uh veterans exemptions that the state has uh allotted in this uh and bring them down to our town.

We can do that. We'll we would do that as an ordinance the same way we did the last time the council went through this a few years ago and added a bunch of them back and added a bunch of the optionals in. Uh we would do that again. We can produce a a res uh an ordinance for you to amend the town code to have that for our next meeting. That's great to uh add all the uh additional veterans benefits that are allowed by state law. Yes, absolutely. That's good. Is there I like it. And how many of these do we already offer properly? Uh it says on there which ones we offer and which ones are for consideration.

Have you looked at the the for consideration? So, if there's a a code section written by it, like for example, um on page 8, there is the exemption for certain non-disabled veterans without wartime service, there is a a code section reference there, 278 of the code, section 55 or paragraph 55 rather. Uh we identify that as as one that we take. So there's we've we've pulled in the exemption that was previously existing for gold star parents and spouses. Uh there is a new one that's available for the current grand list uh that you've just talked about. So,

yep. There's another one in here which I just uh there's also one for firefighters and emergency uh personnel uh for police um which is a uh a $2,000 uh abatement off of the prop or abatement up to $2,000 uh in any fiscal year. Um you're talking about the one on the bottom of page five. bottom of page five, top of page six. That was what we didn't really the town. We used to have that and the town turned that into a stipen. Yeah. Yeah. We kind

We turned that into a stipen so that members that we have that don't live in town or that don't have assets in town can still get a benefit, if you will, of serving as a volunteer in this community. But since they did that, they changed the tax law where it's not taxable if you do it this way where it's taxable as a W2 wages the way we're doing it now.

They changed that. Uh that is true. It becomes they changed it the year. The IRS changed it the year after it was implemented in the town. So if you go with this then it's not taxable to the recipient where right now it's a W2 uh to the recipient. So, um just something that maybe we could get a little bit more information on um before we add that one to decide whe you know which is better. Yeah. So, uh, when we do the the change, I'm looking to change the veterans ones for right now, and I think we should discuss the fire department, fire and police and EMS um, based on the current tax law.

The or the law does now allow for intergovernmental agreements. So maybe that is something that could help in the the situation of um rewarding if you will folks that are out of town that at least work for us. But it says volunteers not work right now that we have a paid. So I'm just saying because right now we have many paid people on the ambulance and we have much many fewer volunteers. Correct. So you know Yep. And that's all outlined in the stipen the paids don't and the true volunteers do and then the yeah the depending on how the paid on calls there's a little in between

but I don't know if we could so I guess what I'm saying is I want to pursue the veterans for our next meeting but I think we need to address that just for the tax savings of the volunteers uh with the tax law changes to see which is more beneficial to them. Okay. Is that okay? And I I think we should also come back with something for seniors.

Yeah. the ones for seniors. I think those spring just remember that and I hate to be the wet rag on this one, but as the uh population ages, if you start pulling all the money out of the uh the majority of the population, you're actually going to see a severe decrease um in town. If if you transfer all of the burden of the taxes to the non senior population, can we limit the benefit to uh certain income levels? They are. You can. In fact, that's the default. Yeah.

Um there is an income level in the statutes that outlines um how much they can get. I think I mentioned it in my my uh somewhere around 50,000 to make they're eligible. 50,100 or it used to be 45 married 452 for unmarried

and that that particular rate uh is found in all of the regulations that have a an income requirement related to them. The town council initially when it adopted the um the senior or modified the senior program that you're talking about, the freeze program, it did increase that uh that wage rate or that earnings rate up a little bit but chose not to index it and the figure from the state has surpassed it. So the town council could look at that. That's the um that's the section uh that outlines the uh um the other thing that we did discuss when we when this came up last time for the senior um is all of the state requirements are incomebased that you show on your tax return. It is not assetbased. So if you have a lot of assets that are not taxable i.e annuities, uh you know, uh municipal bonds, something that does not show up on your tax return, you that is excluded. So you could have millions of dollars and have very little taxable income and you would then be qualifying. So if we're going to do something, we need to look at an asset base as well as income base. I know for the this one he's talking about, we can't because that's a statemandated one. But if we're going to look at any um uh of the uh senior tax credits, we need to look at income as well as assets. And also if they transfer their house out to a a trust or to a family member just because they're paying the taxes, they you know, again, the town's not benefiting if they've transferred the house to someone else.

So the tax freeze is the is basically all of article seven of that section of this of the uh town's code. It starts on the bottom of the third page of that section of the town code that I gave you. It says property tax relief for so certain elderly homeowners and it outlines in accordance with the statute the various authorities related to it. Uh but if you roll down to basically number four of that uh 278254 you start to see what the the qualifications that someone must have and there are there is some flexibility for the town there uh to modify that. And one of the things that it did as I mentioned was uh in in D there we increased the um the earnings piece in accordance with the statutes and we used the term qualifying income in accordance with the statutes and and talked about that. that that particular piece you can modify. Uh if I remember correctly, I think there was a modification of the age uh then if not at minimum the time during time during which you have lived in East Hampton before you can claim it.

I think those were things that the council talked about at least a few years ago when we last addressed these. So those are things that are available for you to consider uh if you want to make modifications there. Yeah, it's But again, as I said, for the freeze, one of the more challenging pieces is the is the lean. And that's a policy question the council has asked itself and answered on occasion over time. So, we can if you want to talk more about this, you want to try and focus on some other things, we can. Um

um Dave, for the next meeting, could we get examples on the homestead now that we know what the assessments are and how those might affect people? Um because I'd like more information on exactly like financially, is that going to be to the benefit of some of those homeowners who saw really drastic um increases in their assessment? Um sure. We'll see if we can figure out a way to do that.

But just like reading through it, it's hard to tell if someone's going to benefit without seeing some sample calculations. and we'll see what we can pull together on that. Anybody else have anything? Move on to nine. New business review and possible action on police department general orders. General order 4.9 complaints.

I'll invite Chief Western to come up and go through all of those, please. uh good evening. Uh tonight before you are three existing uh or two existing general orders and one brand new general order that I'm requesting approval for. The first one is general order 4.9. It's the model policy that uh deals with complaints that alleged misconduct by law enforcement personnel um which required minor modifications to be in compliance with the police officer standards and training council. Specifically, it removes the requirement that the complainant provide their employer information, the requirement of administering an oath and notoriization of the form and the false statement warnings. General Order 5.5 family violence is an existing general order which gets modified roughly every other year and this modifications were required to be in compliance with post and the changes deal with a lethality assessment program added language to speed up the process of completing uh executing arrest warrants and adding language pertaining to policies when an administrator of a department is suspected of domestic violence and specific lang language to provide uh clearer investigation of weapons compliance by those individuals that are ineligible to possess weapons due to a order of protection as a result of a domestic violence arrest. The new general order uh general order 530, the automated license plate reader is a new general order which is required to be in compliance with post standards. Um it's a model policy that was recently put out by the um police officer

standards and training council. The department does not currently have automatic license plate reader cameras, but we're still required to adopt the policy to be in compliance with the accreditation standards. Uh so that's why you see that policy before you tonight. Um and those are the three policies that I'm looking for approval. Who's your internal affairs uh that has uh been forwarded to the the complaint to the internal affairs designate? That's Lieutenant Hardy Bergen. He handles all the internal affairs investigations. Just sorry I was wondering.

Nope. That's one of the benefits to the lieutenant's position. It's another added layer. He does it. He reviews it. comes to me and I decide whether or not it's a good report, a bad report, and I recommend discipline. Just out of curiosity, if there was a claim, if it was against him, would it go directly to you? That's a very interesting question. Uh, no, it doesn't. If there was a complaint against me, um, it would No, against Oh, against Hardy, it would go to me. Yes. I'm sorry. Yeah. Can we make a motion to um accept these general orders as one or do we need them separate? We can do them as one.

We didn't motion to um accept the general orders number 4.9, general order 5.5 and general order 530. Second. Motion made and seconded. Is there any discussion? Any questions? If not, those in favor signify by saying I. I. Oppos? Nay. Adopted. As always, thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you.

Agenda item 10, town manager report. If I may, you have one other item 9B. Oh, sorry.

Related to the retirement income plan. Uh, as noted in my memo, this is in followup to your approval of the agreement with the police officers union uh that called for some modifications to the retirement income plan. There was a document put on your table tonight that showed one last uh clarification of the language related to uh substitution of months in the earnings calculation related to workers comp. uh there was a I think a concern that the language that the that was written by the benefits attorneys was not quite uh what we had written before. Uh so we we modified that to more closely align with the contract language uh which I think everybody agreed outlined our intent uh pretty well and that's the one that allows if there was a at any time in a month an officer was getting workers compensation pay instead of their regular pay uh that they could substitute a month at the end for calculation purposes. Otherwise, this uh is uh the final step in that agreement uh to change the pension plan for as it relates to pool size

questions. I move to I move this amendment to the uh county stamp retirement income plan. Yes. Second that motion made and seconded. Is there any further discussion or questions? Not those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Oppos? Nay. Nay. One. Nay. Adopted. Thank you.

Al the town manager's report. So, as I uh as always, my written report is in uh the town packet and on the town's website. Um I'll highlight two things. A reminder to the community. Those of us that have sewer, our second payment on sewer is coming up. But mainly, I wanted to point out that uh we're getting ready to do some paving work in and around the village center. Uh that work we think will start um end of April, early May. So, you'll start to see activity down there uh one more time to kind of close that project out and to do, like I said, paving around that area. So, Main Street uh from all from Route 66 all the way to Route 16 will get done uh Summit Street up to Bevon Boulevard, basically past Center School, and then the the two roads back up behind there, Beavenon Boulevard, Bevon Avenue, uh as well as to connect in uh where work was done on the adjacent roads. Uh that will get done. So, uh, folks are encouraged to if during that time if you live around here and you know how to do it, find an alternate route. Otherwise, uh, you can go through that center during, you know, during construction. It just gets a little slow, uh, as you move through. But I wanted to make sure that people have starting to see that and starting to think about how they want to uh, react to that. We'll of course keep access to businesses open, parking lots and things like that to try and maintain as much normaly as we can uh in the week or so that it'll take uh to get through there uh and do that paving. But that's the main thing I wanted to point out. But there's a lot of good information in that report uh from the various town departments and encourage everybody to take a look,

answer any questions that you may have. Dave, um this is tangentally uh related to what's you know the paving that down down center of town. um you know uh new new paving is going to increase speed of of vehicles certainly through town and uh I I have to say that u speeding cars are relatively out of control um as they go past the post office. Um that's an extremely dangerous area. I don't know if there's uh or I didn't see any speed limit signs or anything. And again, even even though the road is pretty lousy there now, boy, if you park on the side of the post office side, try to get out of your car, uh you take your life in your hands. So, whatever we can do uh to sort of address that if we can. And I know is a chief still here. I just uh I'll tell you that that's a seriously dangerous place. uh because when you're parked there, there's still two lanes of traffic coming both ways that um that go pretty fast.

So anyway, that's just a comment. As we make it quicker, go through town with with nicer roads, we should be looking at that, I think. Okay. Is there any speed control uh options that they could institute while doing this such as something, you know, some of them have the hump, you know, like where you debump? Yeah. Not a bump, but they de uh either hump or raised just something to to slow down traffic or even a curvature or something that would force them to actually slow down like they did over in Middletown. I think we could leave that to the police.

No, I'm just Yeah, I don't know. I guess there are things to do, but it is pretty dangerous. And again, I don't see any speed limit signs as if that was going to slow them down anyway. Who knows? Um, but uh, we should be looking at that, I think. Um, Dave, also as Matt's moving through the project with the paving, is it possible to get that information posted on Facebook, like when specific sections will be worked on so that the residents know what to expect? I know I know that there's a there's a correspondence going out uh to residents and property owners and businesses in the area. Um and he's written I I have seen some social media posts that he's proposed. So

yeah, that would be great. We'll know what areas to avoid and when they're taking those routes. We'll do that. Is that all, sir? That's all I had. Thank you. Moving on. Agenda item 11. 11. Appointments.

Yes, Mr. Chairman. Uh, right before the meeting, we uh the appointment subcommittee met and uh had quite a good meeting and interviewed uh three uh three citizens who expressed an interest uh all of which to go on the arts and culture commission which uh sorely needs some uh needs uh uh people needs new members to get their work done. And I do have u recommendation tonight. I'd like to move uh let's see, we'll do this all in one motion. I think it'll be fine. Um I'd like to nominate Alex Bridge Mahon uh to the U Arts and Culture Commission for the term ending December 31st uh 2027. uh Alexander Davis to arts and culture for the term ending 123128 and Kirstston Esbrooks to arts and culture for 123128 term.

Is there a second? Second. Motion made second. Is there any discussion questions of the opponent? If not, those in favor? All right. Most nay. Um Rich, can I just ask? I believe there was one alternate we were supposed to move up on the conservation lake commission that I don't think prepared to do that. Okay. Perfect. I want to make sure we got that one done.

Yes. Uh the um there's an open seat full member on the conservation and lake uh commission. So, we'd like to uh move move an alternate up and that alternate would be Steve Hardenberg. uh to a full position on conservation in lake uh for the term ending June 3027. June 30, 2027. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Any questions? How long's he been an alternate? Just out of curiosity. It was our longest alternate, but I know

that's our long ass three four years. Oh, I mean, yeah, I was just wondering if it' make sure it was someone that actually knew the the uh how the commission is run. You know, we we only bring the best, Ted. We only bring the threats to this board. So, that's good. And one last appointment. Um, we need We'll take Sorry. Go ahead. We're gonna take Is there any discussion or questions regarding Steve? Steve Hardenberg.

If not, those in favor of appointment to full positional lake conservation lake commission signify by saying I opposed. Nay. Yes. We have one more here. Uh we have to make an appointment to the Chattam Health District Board uh that Dave's been uh serving on as East Hampton's uh representative. So the um the motion would be to uh appoint Dave Dave Cox to the uh to reappointed Chattam Health District Board through 123128.

Is there any That's a motion. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Questions? What do you do on that? Make your pardon. What do you do on it? What do I do on it? Well, the Chattam Health District Board. The The Health District Board oversees the activities of the Health District. East Hampton gets two representatives. So, you have another one. Uh, pardon me. Who's with you?

U Christy. Uh, we could Yamaguchi, I think, is her last name. Um, she's a she, I believe, works over at the um community health in Middletown. Uh, Colchester gets the other is the other representative that has two bodies and then the others have one uh two members rather and the others have one. Um, and we oversee on behalf of the communities that we represent the activities of the Chattam Health Board, the Chattam Health District, which is our joint uh health department that serves that does not only health education and those sorts of things, but does all of the inspections of restaurants and hair salons and those sorts of things. handles uh septic system applications and whatnot.

So are you advisory or do you actually you know have some of we've have we have say over policy we have the typical kinds of things that a board would have uh and then uh ultimately for example budget review has to go on through that body uh and approval for budget review and uh what the budget will be uh for that body. Um, so yeah, we have the power and authority of of an oversight body. And that budget is that sliced up between the towns? It's divided to the towns by um by per capita. Okay.

So, um that's how that that's how that gets handled. Usually the town manager does sit on this. the count the town manager has said prior prior to me the town manager sat on that uh as a member of that body and I think that's why it was continued with with the town manager in this instance. I just wanted clarification on what the board you know if it was advisory which sounds like it is and it's all all the ones in the health district right and that's a non-paid position correct of course yeah I don't get paid for that in the other towns Colchester their town manager sits on it also

so they they have a first select person and they have the town of Colchester has chosen um other individuals to sit on it they have I think one of their council members has in the past I don't think uh they are right Now, um, uh, Hebrin chooses to send their town manager. Um, Portland has sent its, uh, uh, first select person. Um, who am I missing? Oh, Marlboro sends, uh, one of their staff persons. And everybody think so. Call the question. Call the question.

Those in favor signify by saying I. I oppos nay. Opted tax refunds agenda item 12. Mr. Chair, I would like to make a motion uh to return eight refunds totaling $3,998.12. Second. Motion making seconded to return tax refunds to their rightful. There's no discussion. Those in favor signify by saying I. I oppos nay adopted.

Agenda item 13 public remarks. Is there anyone who desires to make public remarks in this time? There's a couple on

another week, another exciting town council. All right, I'll make this quick. Um um two weeks ago I was at a PC meeting. it it was uh focused on agriculture and one thing that had come up was the idea of making East Hampton a right to farm town. Uh something I wholeheartedly agree with uh it was a very productive discussion in the meeting and a lot of the people there um definitely supported it. Um I think this is very prudent to the identity of our town. Um I want to protect the history the the tradition of this town. Um, one thing we're seeing is across Connecticut, people move into to rural towns for its rural character. And then suddenly when they move in, they don't like the things that go with what makes it a rural town. They complain about the sites of people having farm equipment in their in their yard or they have an issue with chickens or other animals that have been on those parcels for generations. Um, you know, even the sounds of chainsaws cutting firewood and and things like that. There's even complaints of people on state land in the fall who are just going hunting. Um, I moved here to become a backyard homesteader. I work full-time, so a lot of this is a part-time thing for me. You know, uh, we've heard a lot of people who are full-time farmers and they their properties been in their family for generations, and I think that's great, and I hope it continues on for, you know, for generations to come. Um, but, uh, this is near and dear to my heart because, you know, I come from living in Middletown. I was living on a quarter acre and a three family house. I had over a dozen chickens uh in a rooster and it worked fine. Um but I tell you that cuz now I live on 8 acres here and the reason I moved here was I moved here for a homesteading opportunity. Like I said, I'm new to town. My wife's family's been here for a long time. Um but I was looking for an opportunity for something like that. Perhaps if we had passed a right to farm ordinance 10 years ago, some of these parcels with

developments would have been people like me, maybe who had more money than me, and would have bought them for for those things. Okay. Another property I did look at was the Lakewood property. It was too expensive at the time. There was no utilities into it. It just wasn't going to work. But I'm sure those residents of Lakewood would have rather had a fat poleock chasing his feral toddler around who's chasing the chickens rather than what they're looking at now. So, you know, there's an entire demographic out there that I think that that we need to be tapping into as a town. There's a plethora of millennials and Gen Z's that probably aren't going to be able to afford the 40 to 80 acre farm that traditionally we know as farming, but what they're what they're very into is backyard homesteading. And a lot of them live here in this town right now. My wife meets a lot of them at programs at the library she brings our kids to and um I think it's really beneficial to the town in general. I asked the town council to think about the East Hampton that you were all given when you were born and you became an adult and what the town looked like then versus now and think about what you are handing the town to your children. And it's important that we conserve what we find important about this town. Therefore, I I ask that the town council takes a stand and moves forward in adopting a right to farm ordinance in the town. Thank you. And I've done a lot of research on this. Be more than happy to supply a draft and so on so forth. Thank you.

No, we want to know that. Can we get that to our Hey Dave, is that a uh a state ordinance that we could just adopt or is that something we have to create internally? I think it's a little bit of both. Sorry guys. I think it's a little bit of both, but yeah, I think you're right. At least I think that's what Juliet had talked about is that that's the way you lead into it. And it is actually something that would be or could be or would be done by the council, not Can you uh um do a the state right to farm ordinance um for our next meeting so we can take a look at it and start talking about

Sure. Well, I have a question couple questions like he just got more jobs to do when like you said a couple times there was over 300 people here and pretty much it was unanimous that they wanted him gone, but you're giving him more jobs. That's what is it something to do with health? We don't feel safe. We don't trust him. So, how is somebody getting more jobs that the town doesn't want at all? Like, do you guys not take us serious? Is nobody taking us serious? We're not going away.

That's your right. It is. It is our right. But it's our voice doesn't count. Does our vote not count? Does it not count? It's the same as anybody else. One vote and everybody else. So, there was over 300 people here that want them gone, but you guys just stood up and said, "Let's get more power. I'm not convinced. Convinced what? Of all the things that he's been accused of. Are you serious? His name's on all of them. I am serious. Dead serious. Dead serious. So, you're you're going to get kickbacks the ones he is too. Kickbacks, please.

No, it's not. Please. It's not. Please. Look at Look at all the stuff. You can't say that you guys don't know anymore. It's out. He's on every freaking email. He has not helped the town. He's helped developers. He has not helped the town. I have personally went to him for other farm issues. Did nothing. You know what happened to me as soon as I went away? They tried to backlash and I have a cease and desist for cutting saplings down. How far do you want to go into this? Because it's not is not the first time I've dealt with him. You going to keep covering his ass, Dean? I'm going to go go. Are you going to do your job or not?

My job isn't just toy willy fire somebody on hearsay. Hearay. Hearsay. How is it hearsay? There's been proof brought. No, there hasn't been. I Does anybody have any of these emails that he CCed in and everything that can get bring it up? There's one one copy. Hold on. No, no, this isn't going away. We're not giving him more copies. Enough is enough, Rob. Come on. Was that enough? Enough is enough for him. You're going to stand up for him, too. We're going to stand up for Reese Hampton. All of East Hampton of all of East Hampton, CCC, Cox, David,

Juliet, Hajj. Here's some of them. These these are all separate copies handout. Yes. So, this means that everybody got this stuff from Simone. For anybody that wants to say they don't know, enough is enough. You're right. We are taking our town back. We're taking our town back. off.

Oh yeah, they did.

So, hi Sanders Safar 147 Colchester Avenue. I'll try and make this quick. Uh, regarding the abatements that were considered, um, I'd like to to I'd like to encourage the board to think outside the box on this that the state statutes that were talked about should be a baseline. We can do better. We're East Hampton and we can decide what we want to do regarding helping our seniors and those um uh special people who are um uh who are um um military and and uh helpers like the fire department and police department and such. Um so I'd like to encourage you to think outside the box. Um do what we can to help those who are um in need. Um, I'm in favor of the abatement the uh deferment that does cause a lean against the property. There are people that would be willing to do that because they don't have children um who um and it would um we the town would get its money back. So, um include that plus um perhaps um some incentives to if they have a lot of property that they would be willing to um leave it as open space to help um so we don't have to buy open space. Just think outside the box. Maybe have a subcommittee to look into some of these things. I just recommend that you guys u seriously think about this because we've gone through especially recently with the reevaluations um some serious tax increases for some people. Thank you.

Three hands raised. Jennifer, can you hear me? Yes. Yeah.

Hello. Um, I actually just raised my hand after you guys were talking about the veterans and the seniors. Um, I don't think it's appropriate to put leans on someone's houses and that's why they're not taking advantage of these programs. Why can't you give them the discount and whatever until they pass and then put it back to where it belongs? Nobody wants to burden their family after they pass. So, if you want to be helpful, truly be helpful. The seniors and the veterans are what makes every community. You know, I I understand you guys want to be helpful, but you're not really being helpful if nobody takes advantage of these programs because they don't want to put a lean on their house. My dad was a veteran. He doesn't want to leave a lean on his house for his grandkids. Like, be helpful if you want to be helpful. You're really not being helpful if people don't take advantage of these things. and the seniors in this town don't get anything really. They're getting pushed out and pushed aside and it's quite ridiculous. On a side note, you guys have no intention of getting rid of Mr. Cox over there because you just gave him more responsibilities and more power just like Robert said. So, you guys have no intention of doing what the town's people wanted you to do. And that's pretty sad. And we're not going to go away. And there is proof and you were handed it just a minute ago. So, do what's right. I don't know why it's so hard to do what's right. Do what the people in town want. But at the very least, you should help your seniors and your veterans. Otherwise, none of us would be sitting here spewing any words coming out of our mouths. It's all I have to say. Do your jobs. Do it right. Be helpful if you want to be helpful. But right now, you're not being helpful if people don't take advantage of it. and you've said it yourself why

they're not taking advantage of it. Just put the tax taxes back once they pass. And if they want to transfer their assets prior to their death, then you know, put a mark on their on their file and on their taxes that say, "Hey, this is a veteran. Let's see if they have any discounts going on and put it where it belongs if they want to transfer their assets before they pass." It's kind of crazy. I mean, you say you want to be helpful, but you're really not being helpful to many. very few very few that don't maybe have kids or whatever. Sad. It's sad. And those are the people we should be taking care of the most. That's all I got.

Hello. Hello.

Hello. Yeah, go ahead. What's your name?

Uh, Peter Downey, 166 Lake Drive. I would just like a couple answers question by the town manager. Um, how many Freedom of Information Act um requests have been filed since March 1st, 2026? and how many ethic complaints have been filed since March 1st, 2026 in this town. Also, I have not heard back from town staff about my complaint from Mr. Cox who emailed me last two Fridays ago about this. Still haven't heard anything back. I would just like some answers because you know as as as far as this tone of this council meeting it looks like a funeral and I I we all want some answers. Thank you. Yes. Hello. Uh Kyle Dler, William Drive, East Hampton, Connecticut. Um there's been a lot of discussions tonight about sewers. While I can appreciate the speed at which the town council and town manager are moving speedily forward with the assistance of the town attorney. I do have concerns about this new ordinance that could be readily addressed. Why I haven't read the new ordinance that is going to public hearing uh regarding the town council taking over the responsibilities of now defunct WPCA. It seems that a very important consideration may have been overlooked. I certainly hope it has not. Uh the WPCA is responsible for supplying portable water to connected consu customers and also for maintaining wells,

treatment equipment, water, piping, etc., etc., etc. within East Hampton. And while the WPCA does not provide drinking water to most East Hampton residents with private wells, large portions of the town are served by localized community water systems owned and operated by the East Hampton WPCA, including um Royal Oaks and the Village Center System. Is it safe to assume that this new ordinance ordinance also includes the town council taking over responsibility for all of these water systems, their maintenance, operations, budget, and ensuring compliance with a safe um or is it the safety drinking water act? I only ask this question for your consideration because I think it's a very important one. Thank you very much. Any other anyone else close public remarks at this time? Council is going to be going into executive session. So there won't be any actions taken after that meeting. So you're free to go.

Hold the five minutes first. Five minutes first. We need a We need a motion. Motion to go into executive session uh to discuss uh attorney uh correspondence and potential purchase of property and invite the town manager and the town attorney in second. Have a second. Second. I'm sorry. I didn't hear it. I heard it. So, give me five minutes.